An event held on Thursday 7 January kicked off the anniversary year marking 250 years since Addenbrooke's was founded.

On 13 October 1766, Addenbrooke’s Hospital opened its doors on Trumpington Street thanks to Dr John Addenbrooke who left £4,500 in his legacy ‘to hire and fit up, purchase or erect a small, physical hospital in the town of Cambridge for poor people.’

Originally housing just 20 beds in four wards it treated 263 patients. Today’s hospital, including the Rosie Hospital, has 1,000 beds, an income of £719m, over 8,000 staff, 57 wards and treats nearly a million people a year.

Jane Ramsey, CUH chair, said:

"This year, we are celebrating 250 years of staff achievement, patient care, research and teaching – a major milestone in our history to look back on 250 years’ of achievement but also to look forward to what the next 250 years could hold.

"We are a hospital with a rich past – part of the community and essential part of medical innovation. But looking at the display in the main reception of the hospital shows with what affection Addenbrooke’s is held by patients, the public and staff.

"Above all Addenbrooke’s is about people and their stories, as you will see from the ‘Faces of Addenbrooke’s’ exhibition – people make this place what it is and they always will.

"Our invitation is to our staff and our community to come and help us mark the 250th anniversary of Addenbrooke’s Hospital at the events we have planned and to meet the people behind your local hospital and discover the inside story of Addenbrooke’s – past, present and future."

The CUH chair and CUH chief executive Roland Sinker were joined by invited guests: Professor Sir Roy Calne, pioneering surgeon and former professor of surgery; Dawn Chapman, former nurse consultant and current public governor; Keith Day former administrative director and former CEO of ACT; and Margaret Pearce Higgins, the nurse who met HM the Queen at the official opening of the site and again at the opening of the new Rosie Hospital; and Stephen Davies, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust CEO.

ACT are sponsoring the celebrations – the first of which will be the Trust Open Day on Sunday 20 March. ACT has a full programme of their own events to celebrate the hospital's 250th year on their website.

Latest news from Addenbrooke's

Caroline Abbott, a radiographic department assistant in the Breast Unit at Cambridge University Hospitals, has “braved the shave” to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support in support of her aunt who has bowel cancer.

During the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC) week focused on the heart, we take a look at an outpatient clinic that is giving people with exertional chest pain a fast route to specialist cardiac services.